The Telecom Review Excellence Award for Best Global Digital Transformation Provider went to Netcracker Technology. Bob Titus, CTO at Netcracker, tells Telecom Review how his company’s solutions are driving that digital transformation regionally and globally.
How is Netcracker’s BSS/OSS service helping businesses accelerate growth and success in the digital economy?
Netcracker has invested heavily in our cloud BSS/OSS solutions. These solutions help digital service providers with their transformations and move from being service providers to techcos. The way we do this is in three dimensions. First, we help redefine digital engagement with their subscribers. We are doing this with Vodafone Oman, du and with Zain across the region. It is about leveraging the service providers’ data to engage with our customers. For example, with Vodafone Oman, we have deployed our analytics platform that helps them personalize interactions with subscribers and leverage data from across their enterprise. The second way in which we are helping service providers is by enabling new services. Whether it is in 5G, edge or private networks, Netcracker’s cloud BSS platform is enabling service providers to sell those services, to monetize them properly and to deploy and manage those new technologies. Last but not least, our platform is helping service providers move to a new operating model by leveraging agile DevSecOps and other methodologies to become faster and more flexible in terms of how they deploy their solutions and services in the market.
Netcracker has been a market leader in Cross-Domain Orchestration solutions. How have CSPs benefited from this service offering?
What we see in today's market is that networks are becoming more virtualized, and they are becoming more intelligent. This requires that the OSS platforms that manage those networks also become more intelligent. At Netcracker, we have invested heavily in this area. We have created a platform that will manage the infrastructure and automate end-to-end services. A great example of this is the program we are doing with Etisalat. Etisalat is leveraging our domain orchestration capabilities to automate processes within network domains like core and cloud and also leveraging our end-to-end cross-domain orchestration capability to deploy end-to-end services. Service providers are leveraging our cloud OSS to manage their network from an end-to-end perspective and drive automation at every layer.
Please tell us about the marked features of Netcracker’s recently announced open and automated fiber IT solution.
Netcracker launched the fiber cloud solution to address what is happening in the market today. Service providers are de-layering and spinning off their networks into separate entities of NetCos and separating those from the ServiceCos. Netcracker’s fiber cloud solution is targeted at the NetCos and offers key capabilities along two dimensions. One is automating their network operations. As they deploy fiber infrastructure, how do they roll that out from a network designing and planning, network inventory and service provisioning perspective? We are deploying the OSS capabilities that these FiberCos require to manage their network infrastructure. The second dimension that we are offering with our solution is the wholesale BSS capabilities and the API integration layer that will enable those FiberCos to integrate with multiple ServeCos to onboard those ServeCos, take orders and bill and settle for those services that they provision for those multiple ServeCos.
From your perspective, how will communication in the future look three years from now, and what investments are crucial?
We will see continued innovation in this industry across multiple dimensions. We will see continued technology evolution at the network layer, more incorporation of the cloud, more digital services, and digital engagement with customers. What that means is that service providers need to invest along three dimensions to be ready for these changes. The first is to invest in cloud-native OSS and BSS solutions. This will give the service providers the flexibility and agility to incorporate new services, automate their processes, and be ready for whatever technology changes come next. The second area they need to invest in is the right ecosystem. Being able to onboard partners that will bring innovative services into the service providers’ bundles and be able to settle with those partners and create new business models. Last but not least, the third area in which service providers need to invest is in developing a culture of innovation within the organization. At Netcracker, we believe this is as important as the technology, so when we come in and do these transformations, we also focus on putting in place new methodologies, moving the IT systems to an agile way of operating, incorporating DevSecOps and making sure that the transformation goes beyond technology and incorporates people in the culture to increase speed and agility.